Los Altos council to consider purchasing SFMOMA artwork

A temporary piece of public art featuring several brightly colored doors could find a permanent home in Los Altos.

On Tuesday, the City Council is scheduled to consider chipping in $7,000 of the $28,000 needed to purchase Chris Johanson's "Door Sculpture to Talk About the Idea of Different Possibilities You May Have to Process in Your Life."

It was among several indoor and outdoor exhibits that comprised the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art's "Project Los Altos," which ended March 2 after a roughly three-month run.

"Vibrantly colored with customized frames and handles, they are each open to different degrees, inviting viewers to walk through them and symbolically offering opportunities for change and testing our willingness to seek it," Jenny Gheith, assistant curator of painting and sculpture, wrote in a description about Johanson's piece on the SFMOMA website.

Johanson has agreed to sell the piece at a "discounted" price of $28,000, according to a report by City Clerk Jon Maginot. He is also comfortable with the piece being moved from its current location in Lincoln Park, just north of Main Street, but wants to be consulted first.

In its current planned location, the piece would conflict with the annual Art in the Park event. The Public Arts Commission has suggested moving it to an area just south of the Chamber of Commerce in Lincoln Park.

"The PAC feels this location would preserve the visual and cultural impact of the original location," Maginot wrote.

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The Passerelle Investment Co., a real estate investment firm linked to billionaire Google co-founder Sergey Brin, has offered to provide $14,000 as long as the sum is matched by the city and community, the report said. The company also sponsored "Project Los Altos."

Joe Eyre, executive director of the Los Altos Community Foundation, has said his organization may be able to support the effort by setting up a designated fund, according to the report.

Approximately $3,000 of the city's $7,000 contribution would be drawn from a fund for public art, according to the report. General and capital improvement program funds could be tapped for the rest.